This is my personal weblog, about my daily life and adventures. I maintain it so I can be in touch with my friends who are far away, and as part of a personal memory project.
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RSS 2010.01.23
I think we made a great choice with this house. So far, after the horrible escrow almost all the surprises we have had are good ones.
After a good deal of drama with receiving the keys, we got into the house on Thursday and the guys assessed the supplies we would need while I went and got gift cards at Home Depot so the guys could purchase supplies without me. At Home Depot, for my convenience, Chase responded to my attemptend purchase by freezing all my cards with them, so I used my Amex. So there, Chase.
Later, we went back to Home Depot and received an incredible deal because of a new program they were trying to get off the ground. In order to be eligible to use the services of the new Pro Team, we had to start by buying $2500 worth of stuff.
From now on, we are entitled to call and have our orders pulled in advance, which is an incredible timesaver, to get free delivery direct to our jobsite, and to get 10% off on everything. Also, after they quote us that 90% price, we are then entitled to have each project submitted to the ³bid room,² which gives us an even lower price. I tested that this week with our new appliances.
In order to get great service on our appliances, I want to buy only Whirlpool or GE, which are the specialties of my appliance repair guys. So I chose a set of Whirlpool and a set of GE, and asked my rep which she could get. I didn¹t think she could get Whirlpool, and she couldn¹t, but they are equivalent.
For the fridge, the MSRP was $999, the dryer $469, the range $649, and the dishwasher $399.
The original offer of the Pro Team was $899, $409, $599, and $349. Then, after submitting this to the bid room, I am told we saved another $249, but I may have misunderstood. This bid room thing is so far not entirely clear to me, and it doesn¹t show up on my charge card yet.
My rep threw in all the install kits and free delivery, which is amazing for appliances.
I bought a range hood on eBay because I felt it was a better one than I could get from either GE or Whirlpool. It¹s a Maytag and only 4.5 sones, whereas the competitors were 68 sones. A sone is a measure of noisiness.
I got three dining tables on closeout from Crate and Barrel for $25 each.
Friday Star came over to consult on decorating, and we agreed to go with the color schemes that are already successful for me, because 1) I¹m trying to do the first house quickly, 2) because we know they are popular, and 3) because we already have some paint and coordinating accessories. An ancillary advantage was I could then build the Web site without pictures of the current place, because I could give pictures of the other place as examples.
The reason I want to rent it quickly is to try to get Cal students, even though the term has begun. The site is temporarily at http://www.sunahweb.com/MilDos/.
A was going to help me get some Craigslist furniture and appliances on Saturday, and he did not show up. He had also been late on Thursday and Friday, so we temporarily demoted him. He and I have been planning this job for months, and he has had some great ideas, but it¹s a big responsibility and I think he got a little nervous. Fortunately I had already changed my original plan, to now rely on both A and J. We agreed that A could be my guy again as soon as he is on time five days in a row. Until then he will be J¹s guy. I¹m sure this is a temporary thing. After Monday all personnel matters went perfectly.
On Sunday my back went out and I have been suffering all week. Sunday is the day SN comes over here to go to the gym with me, and she was here when my back went out. She and Barry put me to bed and then drove to Whole Foods to get me comfort food. That made me happy.
Michelle and I pulled out all the art we have been saving for the new building and discussed how to use it.
In order to have a shot at getting ready in time for Spring semester, we decided to work with four guys instead of two this week and next. J, A, and Danny all worked together on my cottage in 2008, so I knew that would go well, and Luis has been working with his uncle J since he arrived, which would seem to have been just a few months ago, but I haven¹t asked. He doesn¹t talk much.
Our living room, foyer, and parlor have board-and-batten trim, and there are two parts where that trim is messed up. I asked J to fix it. In the living room he pulled the messed-up part off the wall and there was a beautiful built-in cabinet behind it, which completes a weird hole that looked like it used to be a pass-through from the kitchen. So now that pass-through and that cabinet are available.
The guys rewired the house and did the plumbing this week. We had thought we needed to increase the service to 100 amps, but PG&E made such a big deal about it that we invited another, more licensed electrician that J has worked with in the past to help us out for free, and he says we are OK with the amps we have. He also helped us buy some non-Home Depot supplies at a good price.
J took the horrible countertop and backsplash off in the kitchen and uncovered some beautiful subway tile with a somewhat unfortunately green feature strip, but authentic. It will work out great.
AT&T is careful not to give out too much DSL, so there was a chance if we didn¹t have some bandwidth on the line by today they would reduce our service. Therefore we got a rudimentary office going today; also a lady we know gave us a really nice bathtub, toilet, and some cabinets from a house she is remodeling.
The Holiday Inn nearby is closing and selling a lot of furniture that we need at great rates, but so far I haven¹t been able to arrange access for me and my measly three units.
Our money estimates are fine so far, and we are fine on time because of the four guys this week, but the late COE put us out of reach of the beginning of Spring term. Also it seems that we can¹t wait til next year for the second roof as we had planned because it is leaking now, and I think it would also be wise to change the windows now because they let the cold air in the house and the rain and dew into the frames, rotting them. I will see what I can arrange.
(SunahWeb.com/cgi/storyprinter.cgi?Life/2010.01.23.First2Weeks.shtml)
-1 Story >>> @>+-+--
2010.01.13
This has been a very stressful day. The house has finally closed. Yay. There are still many procedural issues to be worked out, but at least we can start on the physical issues now. I found a lot of stuff on Craigslist I must buy now that I have a place to put it. I got the electricity and Internet, but not the water, on.
Before 4pm, when the house closed, my delightful periodontist, Dr. Lodberg, showed me the awful things she planned to do to me; we spent an hour solving A's banking problems; and we spent 2.5 hours remediating his arithmetic issues. Our Room I, Daniel, is teaching Adan for the first time today. He took over while I visited Dr. Lodberg, and he was very interested because his girlfriend has just been certified to be a teacher so he can get a glimpse of her experience.
~ One year ago >>> @>+-+--
2009.01.14
The display stopped working on my MacBook Pro. I'm trying to migrate the stuff to a PowerBook G4. The computers seem almost as high-maintenance as the VW Van. But I can't give them up as easily.
~ Two years ago >>> @>+-+--
2008.01.02
Because of our dog crisis, with both Raymond and Pisco here, Lina decided to be an angel and bring her family and dinner over to our house. That was very sweet, and we had a good time.
According to unrendered, the following is "The Beatles' 'A Hard Day's Night' recited by Peter Sellers in the style of Laurence Olivier doing Shakespeare's Richard III." Made me smile.
~ Three years ago > @>+-+--
2007.04.18
What a lovely time we had celebrating Sebastian's 21st birthday. Javier, Jose, Lauren, Luca, Annie, Barry, Sebastian and I were here. I wanted to invite more people but I only had eight chairs and I wanted to play musical chairs, with NPR as music because that is what I have. Nobody but Lauren, Barry and I, the three Americans, were familiar with musical chairs, but NPR was just not raucous enough for the occasion so I sang Happy Birthday and stopped at random times. The game worked better than I thought it might. Then we had champagne, ginger cake, ice cream in fruit flavors, and talked about the world for a few hours. I was sorry Javier and Jose had to go, but we still had an Italian, a French woman, the German birthday boy, Lauren and me. Barry had had to go to sleep. Lauren is so amilable and bright. She was wonderful at explaining the historical perspective she has gained from being a seventh-generation Californian. And actually, with Barry gone I discovered that I can host such a fun discussion on my own, which was nice to know.
(SunahWeb.com/cgi/storyprinter.cgi?Life/2007.04.18.SebastianParty.shtml)
~ Four years ago >> @>+-+--
2005.12.16
Since I made money this year, much to my astonishment, I have to figure out all my IRAs and Roth IRAs and SEPs and do something about them by the end of the year. I'm reading Pubs 590 and 560 and feeling a little foolish, as a former expert on this topic. (SunahWeb.com/cgi/storyprinter.cgi?Life/2005.12.16.Taxes.shtml)
~ Five years ago >> @>+-+--
(http://SunahWeb.com/cgi/storyprinter.cgi?Life/2004.12.27._mas.shtml)
Finally baked the first two batches of nutbread. Made the batter in the giant salad bowl but still got butter all over myself from not wearing an apron. Now my shirt is delicious. I'm pretty fond of the shirt, actually, it's kind of my favorite, so I do hope the butter comes off.
Changed the halogen bulb and watched the 1938 Christmas Carol. Funny, I remembered it being scary, but it's not at all. Leo Carrol, Topper, was Marley's Ghost. I have to say, Jason Alexander was a lot better. Of course our modern cinema stands on the shoulders of the older works, but I'm sorry, the newest one was just SO good that the 1938 one was hard to appreciate.
~ Six years ago >> @>+-+--
2003.12.19
I spent five hours calculating that electricity thing. PG & E made it very, very difficult to figure out how they have been charging me. I'm not super impressed with the cost-effectiveness of the solar installation that would fit on my house. At 4% interest I would actually lose money on it every month. Even without interest, it would take seventeen years to amortize, and it's not even all that expensive. So, all things being equal, we would do better financially to upgrade our windows rather than to get solar panels, and that would also take care of the fact that the current windows all have some deferred maintenance. But of course, all things are not equal. We don't know what will happen with current solar technology or future electrical technology. Chances are, future solar will be a lot more efficient, and future grid electricity will be a worse and worse deal, and may even become obsolete.
Because my last car crash was in a Friday night rainstorm on the bridge, I didn't want to take that chance, so I canceled my dinner with Avatar. I really miss talking with that rascal.
I made cookies and did a lot of bookkeeping while 'watching' Lord of the Rings I. Things that seemed appropriately majestic and dramatic in the theater were absurd on TV. But it was still fun. TV is an incredible bargain. I will be so glad when we have a habitable living room to watch it in. (SunahWeb.com/cgi/storyprinter.cgi?Life/2003.12.19.NoSolar.shtml)
